OSAKA, Japan, Sept. 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Osaka is poised to take its place among the world's leading transportation centers, said United Airlines Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Stephen M. Wolf today, but only if Japan's aviation officials relinquish their current attempts to institute managed aviation trade between Japan and the United States.
Speaking at an Osaka press conference, Wolf said that the opening of the Kansai International Airport next year finally provides Osaka the opportunity to have access to the global air transportation network it requires and deserves.
He warned, however: "Just when the combination of existing air services agreements, air carrier capabilities and airport capacity finally will allow the consumers in Osaka to receive the air services they clearly need, the Japanese Ministry of Transportation (MOT) has been seeking to intervene. Its officials have contended that they -- not the marketplace -- should determine how much access to a global transportation system the citizens of Osaka and the Kansai region will receive."
The MOT has asserted that it has the right to limit the frequency of U.S. carriers' flights to Japan; to deny U.S. carriers the ability to extend their flights beyond Japan (even though the existing bilateral specifically allows such operations); and to require U.S. carriers to make no more than half of their seats available to passengers traveling only on the beyond-Japan portions of flights (primarily Japanese consumers). By contrast, nothing prevents Japanese carriers from expanding their share of the trans-Pacific market if they choose to do so.
Wolf said he was encouraged by recent statements by Japan's Prime Minister Hosokawa that reaffirmed Japan's opposition to managed trade and emphasized his concern for Japanese consumers, including airline passengers. Wolf noted, however, that despite these positive developments, "Japan's aviation negotiators have not yet abandoned their demand for managed trade in air transportation and their threats of unilateral action to implement it."
Wolf added, "The problem with Japan-U.S. trade in air services is not with an imbalance in the Air Services Agreement. Rather, it is an imbalance in specific carrier performance under the agreement. That is a problem that air carrier managers, not government officials, must address.
"Encouraging all carriers -- Japanese and American alike -- to make use of the rights and opportunities available to them under the Air Services Agreement would stimulate enormous improvements for the Japanese passenger and shipper," said Wolf. "It would also show -- quite clearly -- that Japan believes that protectionist policies have no place in Japan-U.S. trade."
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/CONTACT: John Kiker, 708-952-4162, Joe Hopkins 708-952-5770, Tony Molinaro, 708-952-4971, all of United Airlines; night, 708-952-4088; Pamela Hanlon 708-952-7501 (investor relations)/
(UAL) CO: United Airlines ST: Illinois IN: AIR SU:

LG -- NY063 -- 6912 09/29/93 15:15 EDT

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